ClassificationsGreek and Roman Art

Red-Figure Pelike with Actor Dressed as Bird

AAT Object TechniqueRed-figure

AAT Object Form/Functionpelikai

CultureGreek, Attic

PeriodClassical

Date430-420 BCE

MediumCeramic

Credit LineCarlos Collection of Ancient Art

Dimensions8 x 6 in. (20.3 x 15.2 cm)

Object number2008.004.001

Label TextIn the spring of 414 BC, the Athenian dramatist Aristophanes produced The Birds at the festival of Dionysos in Athens. The comedy described the attempt of two Athenians, discouraged by the ravages of the protracted Peloponnesian War, to enlist the help of Tereus, a mythical king of Athens who had been turned into a hoopoe, in order to start a fresh city in the sky, Cloudcuckooland. A chorus of birds participates in this enterprise, giving the protagonists feathers and wings.

The startling image on one side of this pelike (a vessel for storing oil or wine) represents an actor wearing a bird costume: all-over tights and shorts, both patterned with dots and circles (reminiscent of representations of animal skins), and soft but high boots (kothornoi). The shorts are equipped with a tail and a phallus, two more of which are attached to the boots like spurs. The mask takes the form of a rooster's head with comb and wattle. The reverse shows a bearded man, wearing a flowing chiton and a fillet in his hair, who provides musical accompaniment with double flutes.
Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 9, 2013 - April 28, 2014
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, July 2014 - April 10, 2021
MCCM Permanent Collection Galleries, June 29, 2021 - Present
Published ReferencesMCCM Newsletter, September - November 2008.
Adrienne Lezzi-Hafter, "15 Wheel without Chariot: A Motif in Attic Vase-Painting," in Athenian Potters and Painters Volume II, ed. John H. Oakley and Olga Palagia (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2009), 153, figure 9c.
Eric Csapo, Actors and Icons of the Ancient Theater (Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 10, figure 1.5.
Gregory W. Dobrov, Brill's Companion to the Study of Greek Comedy (Leiden: Brill, 2010), cover image.
Mary Louise Hart and J. Michael Walton, The Art of the Ancient Greek Theater (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2010), 28.
Michael C. Carlos Museum: Highlights of the Collections (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2011), 50.
Martin Revermann, The Cambridge Companion to Greek Comedy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 104, figure 5.8.
Gwendolyn Compton-Engle, Costume in the Comedies of Aristophanes (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 121-23, figure 31.
Alexander Cambitoglou and Stavros A. Paspalas, "A Lucanian Fragment with an Aulos-Player in the Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney," Meditarch 30 (2017): 76, Plate 37.
Jeremy Mynott, Birds in the Ancient World: Winged Words (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 354, figure 6.15.
Hedwig Schmalzgruber, "When 'Dumb' Beasts Raise Their Voices: Speaking Animals in Ancient Graeco-Roman and Near Eastern Literature," The Ancient Near East Today X, no. 4 (April 2022).
Carl A. Shaw, "Images of Greek Comedy," in A Companion to Aristophanes, ed. Matthew C. Farmer and Jeremy B. Lefkowitz (Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2024), 59, Figure 5.3.

ProvenanceEx coll. Mr. R.C., Brussels, Belgium, acquired from Aloys Faust, Cologne, Germany, ca. 1970s. Purchased by MCCM from Numisart GmbH, Munich, Germany.

Status

On view

Collections